Drawing and painting can be such a sedentary thing. Especially if you work digitally, which I know most folks do nowadays. It means long days hunched over in front of a screen. The days turn to weeks, months, years, decades. It takes a toll on your body.

I’ve never been a gym rat, but have always tried to get at least a little exercise in so I didn’t completely turn to mush. The pandemic was sort of the perfect excuse to do nothing, and for the past few years I’d gotten really lazy about it. This coincided with entering my late 40’s, and the decline was shockingly swift.

There came a point where I started sounding like my grandpa, groaning and grunting anytime I had to do anything physical. I guess the moment of realization came when I was trying to put air in a tire, and it was surprisingly strenuous just getting down there. Not impossible. Just, harder than it should be.

So this past February, I finally decided to try to do something about it. Wanted to do something strenuous, but nothing I could injure myself with, so I began doing 100 burpees every morning. Burpees are kind of great because you don’t need any equipment, you don’t need much room, and it’s relatively low impact. You work almost everything and get some cardio in as well. If you hate exercise like me, you want to just get it over with as quickly as possible, and the burpee was appealing for this reason.

It was horrible at the beginning. That first week was really bad, but I kept thinking about my kids, who are young and how much I want to see them grow up. I thought about the groaning and grunting noises I’d make bending down to put my shoes on. I did them in my bathroom in front of a mirror so I had front row seats to the horror show my laziness had created. These were all good motivators that kept me on it.

Second week, it hurt less. By end of the month, I’d started including push-ups in there too, and while it still sucked, it was manageable. It was also when I started noticing I was sleeping better, more focused with work, and generally in a better mood. The benefits were many, and noticeable. I could work longer, it was easier to carry my kids around, and I stopped grunting when I bend over to put my shoes on.

This month I noticed I could get to 100 easily, so I’ve doubled it to 200 and that’s finally starting to get tolerable. I don’t really have any goal in mind outside of maintenance. Like I don’t see myself getting super ripped at 47. I just wanna be able to keep doing stuff for as long as possible, and it’s been really eye opening what a difference it’s made. So don’t forget to use it, or you might lose it!

Don’t have much I can show right now artwork-wise. Been working on an all-encompassing secret project I can’t wait to show…but I can’t show anything yet. The torture! Anyhoo, heres another pass on bob the dog, and a weird little self portrait I started the other morning. Not sure what I’m doing with it yet. Trying to be little more graphic I guess?

 

Not sure where it will end up but I guess that’s the point to little studies like this.

Hope you’re enjoying summer!